Today, some software applications may be distributed over a network, such as the Internet. Additionally, some software applications may be run over a network using a client and server model. This model, however, may have problems with available bandwidth when the application on the client makes a lot of requests to the server for properties relating to the files used within the application. Each request requires bandwidth that may be needed by some other process or event. The slower the connection the client has, the more burdensome these requests may become. This is, of course, assuming that the server can keep up with all of the requests that are coming in from all of the clients. Server requests across a wide area network can take a significant amount of time due to network delay, traffic, and/or a high number of users connected to the server. Consequently, it may be inefficient to make numerous file property requests to a server. What is needed, therefore, is an efficient way to distribute information relating to files within a distributed file system.